Afternoon Roundup: 'Déjà Vu' Edition

Instead of focusing on jobs, Republicans have wasted today on yet another repeal of the Affordable Care Act and are offering no replacement, despite their promises to do so. A look at today’s headlines shows we aren’t the only ones who noticed:

“The House will pass a bill today to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law - just like it did a year and a half ago. And it can just keep doing that, as many times as it wants. If House leaders want to pass the bill again in September, they can do that, too. It turns out there's really nothing to stop the House from going into reruns...”

“That has left some House members almost pleading with their audiences: Listen to us. We know you've seen this show before. But it's still important. ...”

“Congressional Republicans, who once promised to ‘repeal and replace’ President Obama's healthcare law, for now have all but given up pushing alternatives to the sweeping legislation the president signed in 2010.”

“And as the House prepares to take its 33rd vote to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act, senior Republicans say they will not try to move a replacement plan until 2013 at the earliest.”

“But the retreat from a central 2010 campaign promise to deal with the nation's healthcare problems has prompted even some conservative healthcare experts to say Republicans owe voters more detail about how they would control costs and protect sick and poor Americans. ‘One of the big questions that the public needs to ask Republicans who are so focused on repeal is what will come in its place,’ said Gail Wilensky, who headed the Medicare and Medicaid programs under President George H.W. Bush and advised Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during his 2008 presidential campaign.”

“But Republican leaders have not brought any of these proposals to a vote.”

“’Repeal is the first, not the last step,’ five House GOP committee chairmen said in a USA Today op-ed on June 20, 2011, the day of their first repeal vote. ‘Compassionate, innovative and job-creating healthcare reform is what's next.’”

“A year and a half later, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the No. 3 Republican in the House, has a detailed list of the 32 floor votes House Republicans have taken to repeal all or part of the 2010 healthcare law. His office has not kept track of bills to replace the Affordable Care Act, a spokeswoman said.”

“Here they go again. Again. Again… Curious to know how many times the House has voted to strip away all or part of the health-care reform law? The magic number is 32 — and it will be 33 after today, as House Republicans plan to vote again to repeal the entire law. The vote, coming in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of the health law, is expected to pass on a mostly party-line vote... And even if today’s vote never gets signed into law by President Obama, Republicans vow to keep trying.”

“If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, House Republicans are indeed certifiable. Wednesday will be the 31st time they have tried, and failed, to repeal all or part of President Obama's signature health care law.”